Gantz and Lapid: Netanyahu using national security for election campaign

Livestream of PM’s Iran presentation ends with Likud logo

By LAHAV HARKOV
Benny Gantz (L) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Benny Gantz (L) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R)
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is behaving irresponsibly with matters of national security, Blue and White co-chairmen Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid warned on Monday, after Netanyahu’s press conference, which revealed another Iranian nuclear site.
“It is strange that the information was publicized hours after the ‘cameras bill’ crashed. Netanyahu’s use of sensitive security information for [election campaign] shows poor judgment. Even in his last days as PM, Netanyahu only cares about Netanyahu,” Gantz tweeted.
The Blue and White leader also emphasized that “nuclear Iran is a danger to regional stability. In the war against it there is no coalition and opposition.”
Netanyahu ended his press conference saying, “It’s important to have cameras everywhere,” a reference to the morning’s vote blocking the bill he supports to allow cameras in polling places.
Lapid pointed out that the livestream of Netanyahu’s presentation ended with a graphic of the Likud logo and voting slip. The graphic only appeared on Netanyahu’s campaign-tied social media accounts and not on the Prime Minister’s Office’s accounts.
“That’s how we should see this ‘revelation,’ which the [International Atomic Energy Agency] has known about for a long time,” he wrote. “This is election propaganda at the expense of our security.”
Lapid said Netanyahu displayed a “horrifying lack of national responsibility.”
“Along with the pride in the IDF and security forces’ operational and intelligence capabilities, the prime minister’s remarks with this timing reeks of selling out and making national security subservient to political needs,” Labor MK Itzik Shmuli said.
“The Iranian threat does not need to be the backdrop to an election campaign, and in light of the threat’s severity, this was a shameful and inappropriate act,” Shmuli added.